No. Once you pass your test, and receive your certificate, you are certified for life. For instance if do great on your exam, and thereby get your SEO Certification, get Web Analytics Certified or a Social Media Marketing Certification, then you have it, and we will not ask you to give it back to us, or remove it from your LinkedIn profile, CV or resume. Once you pass the test, the certification is yours to keep.
Hi, Nice article. I am not sure about the process though. I can understand, finding a niche. But, when it comes to affiliate programs I get a little lost. Would I be promoting someone else's products? If so, no problem. I know I need to research high end products with gravity, are these products ones in certain stores, or companies, etc.?? If so, do I need to get permissions to be on an affiliate program with that company? Also, if it is products with a company, then how do I offer promotions on their products since they are not mine? Thank you, Nanette Vlahusich
I’ve had a quick look at your site and the first thing I noticed is that it’s not sexy. Site design is so important. Anytime I come across an ugly website I hit the back button faster than you can say call-to-action. I also see that you only have two pages, there’s no identity or branding behind the site. You’ve also got a generic header logo that is usually applied by default when you install a theme. No custom logo’s or anything.
Affiliates work to introduce their visitors to the merchant’s brand. They might write a post about a new product or promotion on the merchant’s site, feature banner ads on their site that drive people to the merchant’s site, or offer visitors a special coupon code. If people come from that affiliate’s site and make a purchase, that affiliate gets paid.
Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine marketing (PPC – Pay Per Click), e-mail marketing, content marketing, and (in some sense) display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.[citation needed]

Now as to your comment on traffic it is true, traffic is important. But the truth is, acquiring traffic is easier than converting it. Plus we have many posts dedicated to traffic generation on this blog. Simply check this post, this post or this post. But must importantly, the reason why people struggle with traffic is that they try to promote a sales page or a heavily biased piece of content. Nobody wants to share that, nobody wants to link to that, and as a result you don't get traffic and blame your lack of success on traffic (like you did in your comment above).

If you would like to take a more subtle approach, include a product or service from your company that relates into your blog post. For example, let’s say that you are a wine connoisseur and that is what your blog is based around. In any post that is enticing your readers to open up a good bottle of Merlot or what have you, it would be wise to embed an ad for a quality, easy-to-use wine opener, wine glasses or stoppers that keep the wine fresh.
Some advertisers offer multi-tier programs that distribute commission into a hierarchical referral network of sign-ups and sub-partners. In practical terms, publisher "A" signs up to the program with an advertiser and gets rewarded for the agreed activity conducted by a referred visitor. If publisher "A" attracts publishers "B" and "C" to sign up for the same program using his sign-up code, all future activities performed by publishers "B" and "C" will result in additional commission (at a lower rate) for publisher "A".
The best potential of affiliate marketing is achieved by its integration into online marketing and coordinating activities with search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing and influencer marketing. This chapter highlights approaches and strategies for both affiliates and merchants who want to use other segments of online marketing to boost the performance of their affiliate campaign.

Creating blog content is a very useful and effective way of consistently building content on a site. When creating blog posts, it's a good idea to do some keyword research to figure out what it is that your audience is interested in and searching for online. Also, be sure to research competitors, forums and social media to narrow down on topics for your blog.

The final section of the course summarizes everything, explores the issues that might occur and ways to deal with them. Since affiliate marketing is essentially a part of online marketing, it will be helpful to learn how affiliate marketing integrates with search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, etc. These strategies are analyzed from both perspectives, those of merchants and affiliates. Furthermore, the topic of online marketing and its segments is worth exploring more in the future as it can improve your success with affiliate marketing, regardless if you are a merchant or an affiliate.

If you like the sound of affiliate marketing as a business model, the course also provides information on setting up your own affiliate marketing business – becoming the middle-man. From the course, you’ll learn how to manage the day-to-day operations of the business, be exposed to some useful business management tools and resources, and gain an understanding of how affiliate marketing businesses are taxed in the UK.

I, too, have always looked at ClickBank as a secondary and even tertiary monetization source. But it can be a great sources of revenue. I linked one of my articles to a related product on CB, and without really doing promotion or anything unusual, I get a few sales a week. Mind you, the keyword(s) for the post aren't that huge either. So, even though the traffic not huge on that post, it still manages to get some sales.

If you like the sound of affiliate marketing as a business model, the course also provides information on setting up your own affiliate marketing business – becoming the middle-man. From the course, you’ll learn how to manage the day-to-day operations of the business, be exposed to some useful business management tools and resources, and gain an understanding of how affiliate marketing businesses are taxed in the UK.

#2 High Priced. Another downside is that the course does cost more, a lot more. At $997 it does sound like a lot but I prefer not to look at the cost as a burden but rather an investment in my future. The way I see it if this teaches me how to how to build even a modest income of a $1000 per month for the rest of my life I feel the price is well worth it.